Effebiquattro opens the doors to the future

While the crisis of the wood and furniture industry was raging on, a select few companies took the time to comprehend what was happening. They reflected on their own operations, identifying their strengths and mapping out scope for renewal. One company to have done this with courage and success is Effebiquattro, a brand specialising in internal doors that places great attention on the importance of technology and design. Indeed, it was this “courage to open new doors” that over 40 years ago drove Mario Barzaghi to found the company, develop it and now relaunch it. An important part of the relaunch is a makeover of the brand’s image, something that culminated with the recent unveiling of “Toc Toc”, its own fashion magazine. A glance at the figures shows that Barzaghi made the right decision. Effebiquattro now has production space of 52,000sq m, 33,000 of which are indoors. The company produces 1000 doors per day and has created over 500 models. It has sold around 7.4 million doors in over 30 countries. Its 2015 revenue reached €21m, with further growth of 12% forecast for this year. Quite simply, Effebiquattro has a brave way of tackling the future, as is confirmed by their aim of opening 59 mono-brand showrooms in Italy and around the world by 2018.
Among the most recent eye-catching success stories for the brand in Italy – where Effebiquattro has always had a strong presence, with 60% of its production taking place in the country – were the agreements to supply around 1200 doors from its Dilà collection to the Teatro alla Scala and 1103 doors to the Bosco Verticale in Milan. The company is also opening up new commercial links with Israel, Russia, North Africa, Australia, Mexico, USA and UAE. In the Croatian city of Dubrovnik, Effebiquattro has just opened its second mono-brand showroom.
“We’ve invested in materials, technology and manufacturing techniques, with the objective of maintaining our creativity and artisanal qualities even in industrial-scale production,” explains Barzaghi. Indeed, it was by focusing on innovation in the field of materials and technology that the company kept the crisis at arm’s length. There have been some impressive results in terms of acoustics: Effebiquattro doors are able to reduce noise by up to 28 decibels, in contrast with the standard 19. Technical characteristics are also tailored to the company’s various markets: with the Middle East and Africa in mind, Effebiquattro has created wooden doors that are resistant to high temperatures, humidity and salt mist.
Accompanying the technological side of things is a real onus on design, aesthetics and fashion, with Italian beauty and creativity underpinning it all. This was especially evident on 12 May – at the launch of the new Toc Toc magazine, which aims to explain the ethos behind each product – when the company organised a catwalk show organised by talented young designers from the Fashion and Textile Design course at the Accademia PBS in Monza.